Formerly a struggling single twenty-something

I Quit!

…Okay, that makes it sound a lot more dramatic than it really was. As much as I’d love an opportunity to yell, “I quit!” and storm out of someplace angrily, that’s not what happened here. In reality, I accepted a new job and quietly gave my two weeks’ notice.

Since it’s generally not a good idea to blog about looking for a new job while you currently HAVE a job, I’ve kept quiet about the job search here. But in reality, I’ve been contemplating a career change for a long time. I thought about leaving a couple of times prior to this, but every time I did, a really good reason to stay came along. Like I was going to make my number. And then I was going to make my number again. And then I got offered a free trip to Grand Cayman. (Yep. I’m quitting the company that just sent me to Grand Cayman.)

Finally out of reasons to stay, I started job searching. I’d been thinking about moving out of higher ed publishing and into…higher ed. Research showed me that there were plenty of jobs out there for which I was qualified and that paid as much or more than my current job. And since this is Boston, where there are so many colleges that I can’t think of all of them off the top of my head, jobs in higher education are not exactly scarce. I applied, I went on interviews, and I eventually accepted a job in faculty affairs at a university in the area.

The job offer came, funnily enough, on my eight-year anniversary at this company. It’s so weird to think that I have been at this company for EIGHT YEARS. So much has happened since then. My first year at this company, I was twenty-three and so broke that I spent months looking forward to my first business trip. After that trip, I also got to go, for the first time, to Philadelphia, Chicago, DC, St. Louis, Savannah, Atlanta, Cincinnati, and, of course, Grand Cayman, among other places. I met so many awesome people, many of whom have also left by now. I gained confidence, especially after being promoted from my first job quicker than I ever dreamed I would. I had a lot of success working in SALES—if you told me in college that one day not only I’d work in sales but become one of the company’s top salespeople, I would have said you were crazy. And there have been a lot of good times: crazy holiday party stories, hanging out in bars after work, playing on our terrible (but fun) softball team, the sales meetings in various cities (including that one time we were almost two days late and my luggage went missing), getting to know a host of new coworkers after a big merger, and Obama’s first inauguration, when, after realizing we’d have a hard time watching it in the building, basically the whole office got up and migrated to the restaurant on the corner to watch it there. This company has been such a huge part of my life for so long that it’s going to be really weird to work anywhere else.

There are a lot of reasons I’m leaving, none of which have anything to do with the people at my company. I won’t go into all of them, but the simple version is that, while I’m glad I made the move to sales almost four years ago, I did so because I wanted to move up within the company, and that is no longer a goal of mine. Education is something I’m passionate about, and I realized that working in higher education in some capacity would be a good fit for me. I don’t know exactly what my future holds career-wise, but, although I did have a panicky OH NO WHAT HAVE I DONE moment after I resigned, I hope I’ll enjoy my new job and the people I work with there and that it will open up some great opportunities for me.